This July, an emergency room nurse named Cathy Behr wanted to tell Colorado’s Oil and Gas Conservation Commission the story of how she nearly died after being exposed to a mystery chemical from a gas-patch accident. Regulators said she wasn’t scheduled to testify and they didn’t want to hear it. But anyone concerned about natural […]
Gas industry secrets and a nurse’s story
Posted inWotr
Saddling up for a good cause – at last
I accidentally set my brother, Walt, on fire when I was 3. In fifth-grade, I swiped his buffalo-head nickel collection, blowing it on candy and RC colas. During college, I unintentionally sank a drill bit into his thumb, sending him to the emergency room. After 50 years of my shenanigans, you’d wonder why he still […]
Posted inGoat
Utah fishermen no longer required to levitate
In Utah, as in many states, the public has a right to use the water in rivers for recreation. But the land underneath the state’s rivers is often privately owned. So what happens when someone touches the bottom? The question floated all the way to the Utah Supreme Court thanks to Kevin and Jodi Conatser, […]
Posted inGoat
Las Vegas offers rural Nevada the dry end of the straw
Las Vegas is a thirsty city in a state that’s entitled to a measly four percent of the Colorado River’s annual in flow. That means that it’s had to be at turns creative and bare-knuckled in getting the water it needs to keep up with explosive population growth. Lately it’s been leaning towards the bare-knuckled […]
Posted inGoat
New hcn.org
For the past 9 months I have been working with the wonderful folks over at ONE/Northwest and the Web Collective, both out of Seattle, on the new hcn.org. Built on the powerful open-source platform Plone, the new site gives us greater control over our content, more flexibility, and simply put, the ability to do more […]
Posted inArticles
Taxed off the farm
New Mexico’s rural property tax laws could price out longtime residents
Posted inHeard Around the West
Battle of the bag bans
It’s a battle of the uber-rich — Aspen vs. Telluride — to see whose residents can best wean themselves from disposable grocery bags. Both towns have so embraced the bag battle — aka an educational campaign — that the competition has been extended through Labor Day. Telluride’s Sheep Mountain Alliance and Aspen’s Community Office for […]
Posted inGoat
The many faces of rural America
Rural America is no longer Norman Rockwell’s version, if it ever was. Such is the lesson of a recent report by the Carsey Institute at the University of New Hampshire, a policy research center that focuses on rural communities. The report, entitled Place Matters: Challenges and Opportunities in Four Rural Americas, makes clear that it […]
Posted inHeard Around the West
Drivers with attitudes
Beware of vehicles that sport bumper stickers, warns a social psychologist at Colorado State University: They signal that the drivers have an attitude. It’s not only bumper stickers that tell on a driver, but also window decals, personalized license plates and other “territorial markers,” says researcher William Szlemko in the Washington Post. Apparently, it doesn’t […]
Posted inHeard Around the West
Moe’s great escape
A chimpanzee who served as best man at his owner’s wedding has been eluding pursuers in the San Bernardino National Forest, 50 miles east of Los Angeles. Moe broke out of what The Associated Press calls a “state-of-the-art cage” at Jungle Exotics, which trains animals for Hollywood. His owners, LaDonna and St. James Davis, rescued […]
Posted inHeard Around the West
Add Mormon flare to your closet
As the Arizona Republic put it, “Polygamy’s pop-culture moment now extends to the closet.” After the Fundamentalist Church of Latter Day Saints was raided in Texas and hundreds of children were removed from their mothers, the many wives of the sect found they needed to make a living. Thus the Web site fldsdress.com was born. […]
Posted inJuly 21, 2008: A fractured party
Passion, creativity, and science
I found Florence Williams’ story “On Cancer’s Trail” engaging and compelling, and a particularly good elucidation of the process of science with all its ups and downs, excitement and drudgery (HCN, 5/26/08). In addition, I was thrilled to see a young, female Native American scientist profiled prominently. I take issue with one point Williams makes, […]
Posted inJuly 21, 2008: A fractured party
Denial and delusion
Your cover story featuring Jeffery Lockwood’s article, “Why the West needs Mythic Cowboys,” is an apropos commentary (HCN, 6/9/08). However, Mr. Lockwood is missing the point — namely, most of the fiction and movies on the subject are constructed to support the principle that “might makes right” and that conflicts are settled with rifles, pistols […]
Posted inJuly 21, 2008: A fractured party
Playground Politics
After reading Matt Jenkins’ article, I looked back at HCN’s tag line: “For people who care about the West,” and wondered what this means in the context of the so-called “ceasefire” in the Klamath (HCN, 6/23/08). Turns out caring for the West and the invaluable ecosystems in the Klamath is tough, especially if your cares […]
Posted inJuly 21, 2008: A fractured party
A fractured party
The Republican Party, struggling with infighting and lacking a coherent vision may find new life — or self-destruction — in the West’s green politics
Posted inJuly 21, 2008: A fractured party
A pitched battle on the Klamath
It’s refreshing to read an account of our situation on the Klamath that takes the time to tell a complicated but ultimately entertaining and gratifying story (HCN, 6/23/08). As an outreach director for a small nonprofit, my job involves informing the public about what’s happening on the Klamath and what they can do to help […]
Posted inJuly 21, 2008: A fractured party
Concert-goers and bird-watchers
Ernie Nelson and Patti Armstrong dropped by in late June. The husband-and-wife team were on their way back to their home in Vail, Colo., after attending the Joe Cocker concert at the Delta County Fairgrounds in nearby Hotchkiss. Another Cocker fan, Mike Massa, owner of Accounting Specialists Inc. in Nederland, Colo., and his wife, Betsy, […]
Posted inJuly 21, 2008: A fractured party
The debate that won’t happen
For a Westerner, this year’s presidential campaign has been both exciting and disappointing. There was excitement when Sen. Barack Obama and the entire Clinton family were stumping in Wyoming; who could ever have imagined that Democratic presidential candidates would be battling for convention delegates in a state that no Democrat has carried in 44 years? […]
Posted inJuly 21, 2008: A fractured party
Power of the picture
International photographers hit the Wyoming Range to document the effects of energy development — and find that beauty and ugliness walk hand in hand
Posted inJuly 21, 2008: A fractured party
Navajo water rights: Truths and betrayals
Editor’s note: Our cover stories often elicit a lively response from readers, but Matt Jenkins’ story about Navajo water rights really got people riled up in both positive and negative ways. The strongest reaction — and certainly the longest — came from some of the main characters in the story, primarily Ron Milford, who was […]